According to research from PricewaterhouseCoopers, 53% of working males and one in five females (21%) intend to watch the 2010 World Cup matches scheduled to take place during office hours as they happen. Overall, 39% of workers said they intend to watch these games.
The poll of 1,000 staff shows while some employees (14%) will be watching at work with permission from their employer, a minority (5%) intends to watch without permission or call in sick. Employers can also expect significant numbers of staff to take annual leave (9%) or use flexible working policies to take time off (11%).
Of course there could be implications for staff who pull a “sickie” if the employer discovers that the reason for the absence is not genuine. This could amount to misconduct and could result in disciplinary sanctions being imposed. Employers are not obliged to grant annual leave requests and could in fact direct an employee on when to take their leave, provided the applicable notice is given.
Employers may be well advised to try and accommodate employees’ requests for time off and/or to permit games to be watched during office hours as far as possible in order to avoid staff from calling in sick with “world cup fever”. Obviously employers will need to manage this in accordance with the needs of their business and they will need to plan for the impact on staffing and productivity but there could be a lot to be gained from taking an accommodating approach. In particular, the goodwill gesture could improve staff morale and productivity and could avoid high absence levels. Employers may want to avoid scoring an own goal by dealing too strictly with employees for an event that only comes around every 4 years.
Submitted by Anthea Christie
